BEIJING

Sunday, April 9. After a very generous breakfast buffet in the hotel, at 8:40 a.m. our bus took us to Tian An Men Square, only a couple blocks away. Mao had this huge square created in the 1950's by razing a large section of the 15th century wall of the Imperial City, leaving only the south gates (inner and outer) standing.

Li had advised us to dress warmly, but no one realized just how cold it would be. The temperature was in the mid-40's, but the wind was steady at 40 m.p.h. with gusts of more than 60 m.p.h. In the huge Square, there was nothing to block it. We wandered around the area between Mao's Tomb and the Gate of Heavenly Peace (entrance to the Forbidden City / Imperial Palace), with the Great Hall of the People (Congress Building) off to the west side, all the while fighting off the overly aggressive vendors of postcards. It seems every Chinese knows the word "hello," but they seem to think it means "Hey, buy this!"

Tian An Men Square

Mao's Tomb

Entrance to Forbidden City

We all posed for a group picture, pretending to smile into the teeth of the wind. We couldn't wait to enter the Forbidden City where (we thought) there would be some respite from the wind. Alas, we never entered any of the buildings, and the wind was as strong as ever between them.

Gate of Supreme Harmony

Layout of Forbidden City

Hall of Supreme Harmony

Construction of the Forbidden City began in 1404 A.D. It's enclosed by a wall, occupies an area of 180 acres, and is said to have 9,000 rooms. We went though all the gates and saw all the main halls in succession, including the Hall of Supreme Harmony with the emperors' Dragon Throne. Unfortunately, our principle thought the whole time was "How soon can we get back on the bus out of this wind?"

Hall of Supreme Harmony

Throne in Hall of Supreme Harmony

Hall of Medium Harmony

Hall of Celestial Purity

Roof detail

As we drove to lunch, we passed the massive inner and outer city gates, all that remains of the 15^th century city wall razed by Mao. 

Inner & outer gates

Qian Men (Front Gate)

We had a big lunch at an excellent restaurant just off the Square. The waitresses wore classical period costumes.  When we finished eating, the band played the macarena and many of our group joined one of the waitresses who led the dance on a small stage. Afterward we were driven to the Temple of Heaven, like the Forbidden City, dating from the 15^th century. It's really a temple complex made up of several buildings. We visited the circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, best known of the buildings there. The wind was still bone-chilling, so instead of exploring the entire temple grounds we all huddled in a nearby temple pavilion (now a museum).

Waitress

Doing the Macarena

Temple of Heaven

Hostess at Beijing Imperial

Mercifully, our guides cut the tour short, and we got back to the hotel at 3:00 p.m., way ahead of schedule. We were glad for the rest and a chance to warm up. We assembled again at 6:30 for a trip to the Beijing Imperial Restaurant for a Peking duck dinner. Actually, that was only one of several dishes served off of a lazy-susan. The hostess here wore a costume more beautiful and elaborate than those we'd seen at lunch.

 

After we got back to our hotel, Brenda took us on a "subway tour" that consisted of riding the nearby subway two stops, then riding it back. Brenda was careful to see that we took the new, modern subway, rather than the older one. We were back by 9:00 and called it a night.